Jedi Training Ages

[mala55]

im curious for those that have done or are planning on doing the Jedi Training, what age is your child/children?

My DD (11) did this last week. She had her hear set on it. She never wanted to do it on prior trips when she was 6 and 9 as she wasn’t into Star Wars then. Now she is obsessed with Star Wars.

She was so disappointed and very self conscious because she was by far the oldest. She wouldnt even battle because she felt too old.

I’m wondering if she just ended up with a younger group or if this is typical. I would say the average ages were between 5-8. Mostly boys.

 

[disneyvoice]

We've seen kids that looked around that age doing it before many times - it's very common to see an older child doing it with their younger sibling. My son only did it when he was about 6 but that was back before you could sign up for it and just had to hope that you were chosen. Once he did it we told him he couldn't do it again because there were so many other kids who needed to have a chance.

I'm so sad she felt self conscious but I think 11 can be a tough age for girls for that kind of thing.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

That's the typical age range. My daughters are 8 and 9 and there were only a couple other kids their age. There was a pretty good split between boys and girls in their group though.

 

[Senaby]

My son is an obsessed Star wars fan...so we did JTA 3 times : 1st time when he was 9 yo and he was in the middle of the group age-wise and then 2 times on our last trip (2016) when he was exactly 11 : on the first session, he was by far the oldest but he enjoyed it as it was the very 1st time for him taking the role of the "more experienced veteran" since he got to fight Vador in 1st position. He gave it all his heart since he thought it would be the last time for him as we live abroad and maybe we wouldn't have the chance to come back to WDW before the age restriction.

A few days after we entered the park a little bit after opening, we realized that maybe he could try his luck once again to fight Vador/Seventh Sister. We managed to find a spot in one of the latest sessions of the day. That time, there were several kids that looked older and were much taller than him (12 looking teenagerish) and who battled Vador before him. Yet he enjoyed very much the experience too.
After he got out I told him that I hoped he had enjoyed it very much since that time had truly been the last time (we couldn't afford another trip before 2 years) ...he looked at me and told me : and what if we come back before my 13th birthday? Technically I will still be 12, right?
So here we are 2 years after, we are going to try to get that one last fight just before his 13th birthday in our next summer trip and he probably will be the oldest that time but I don't think he'll let anything/anyone spoil his pleasure about him being older ...this is actually what he loves about Disney : a world where grown ups can behave like kids and enjoy life like kids without feeling ashamed!
As for girls during JTA, my daughter did all the sessions with him, she's 4 years younger so she did it at 5 (she was the youngest of her group by very far then) then twice at 7 and although she's not as obsessed about SW as her brother, she's keen on proving to us that her fight choreo will be sharper this year than the years before !
And as far as we experienced it in the 3 JTA we did, there was a good balance between the number of boys and the number of girls.

 

[pd1138]

I was wondering this too, my oldest son will be a couple of weeks shy of 11 when we go. I was thinking he might feel funny being older then everyone else. His two younger siblings are going to do it so he said he wants to do it again with them. I guess technically he can since he isn’t over 12. I told him the goal was for the other two to sign up and if there is room in that show then he can do it since he’s older. I am not going to sit through two shows nor will the youngest child who will be just so close to four but will miss the age cut off so she will have to sit out and hopefully not throw a fit since she’s a big fan. I hope they will still do JTA next time when we return after Star Wars land opens!

 

[Helene_C]

My son just did it at 8. I did notice the group seemed on average younger than when he did Jedi training this summer at DL. He wasn't the oldest, there were 3-5 other kids that I would say were ages 8-10, but there were tons of little (ages 5-6ish) kids. At DL I recall more older kids.

 

[AngiTN]

DGD did it on our last trip, she turned 10 on the trip. She's very tall for her age, taller than most 11 yo (only a couple inches shorter than her 33 yo mother)
Yes she was one of the older/taller kids for sure.
It was something she wanted to do, though I did make certain she was positive she wanted to do it. She's done it several times so she knew it was mostly younger kids. Didn't phase her one bit to be one of the older ones doing it.
I'm sad your DD didn't have a good experience that day.

 

[mala55]

We've seen kids that looked around that age doing it before many times - it's very common to see an older child doing it with their younger sibling. My son only did it when he was about 6 but that was back before you could sign up for it and just had to hope that you were chosen. Once he did it we told him he couldn't do it again because there were so many other kids who needed to have a chance.

I'm so sad she felt self conscious but I think 11 can be a tough age for girls for that kind of thing.

11 is definitely a tough age!!! I didn’t know there ever was a time is wasn’t a sign up. Thx

 

[mala55]

My son is an obsessed Star wars fan...so we did JTA 3 times : 1st time when he was 9 yo and he was in the middle of the group age-wise and then 2 times on our last trip (2016) when he was exactly 11 : on the first session, he was by far the oldest but he enjoyed it as it was the very 1st time for him taking the role of the "more experienced veteran" since he got to fight Vador in 1st position. He gave it all his heart since he thought it would be the last time for him as we live abroad and maybe we wouldn't have the chance to come back to WDW before the age restriction.
View attachment 320048

A few days after we entered the park a little bit after opening, we realized that maybe he could try his luck once again to fight Vador/Seventh Sister. We managed to find a spot in one of the latest sessions of the day. That time, there were several kids that looked older and were much taller than him (12 looking teenagerish) and who battled Vador before him. Yet he enjoyed very much the experience too.
After he got out I told him that I hoped he had enjoyed it very much since that time had truly been the last time (we couldn't afford another trip before 2 years) ...he looked at me and told me : and what if we come back before my 13th birthday? Technically I will still be 12, right?
So here we are 2 years after, we are going to try to get that one last fight just before his 13th birthday in our next summer trip and he probably will be the oldest that time but I don't think he'll let anything/anyone spoil his pleasure about him being older ...this is actually what he loves about Disney : a world where grown ups can behave like kids and enjoy life like kids without feeling ashamed!
As for girls during JTA, my daughter did all the sessions with him, she's 4 years younger so she did it at 5 (she was the youngest of her group by very far then) then twice at 7 and although she's not as obsessed about SW as her brother, she's keen on proving to us that her fight choreo will be sharper this year than the years before !
And as far as we experienced it in the 3 JTA we did, there was a good balance between the number of boys and the number of girls.

I love that your son got his wish to fight Vandor and got to go back just before turning 12. He sounds like a very confident Star Wars fan! I think it was just the luck of the draw. My DD just happened to be with a very young group and she is a very tall 11 yr old. I think she felt like a giant. I just wish she had the confidence to enjoy it regardless of the rest of the group sizes and ages.

 

[mala55]

DGD did it on our last trip, she turned 10 on the trip. She's very tall for her age, taller than most 11 yo (only a couple inches shorter than her 33 yo mother)
Yes she was one of the older/taller kids for sure.
It was something she wanted to do, though I did make certain she was positive she wanted to do it. She's done it several times so she knew it was mostly younger kids. Didn't phase her one bit to be one of the older ones doing it.
I'm sad your DD didn't have a good experience that day.

That’s great that your DGD enjoyed and had the confidence not to care about being older and taller. Wish I could instill the same confidence in my DD.

 

[CanadianAli]

Our guys are turning 4 the week after our trip, and would likely love JTA, but we don't want them to not be able to follow directions as well as the older kids doing it and ruin their experience (even though I have been told they would likely be let in), so we will bypass and do it on our next trip. I have seen a broad range of ages participating for sure which is awesome, but I think most kids don't know how they will respond to being on stage and in that setting until they are actually there, regardless of age.

 

[mala55]

I was wondering this too, my oldest son will be a couple of weeks shy of 11 when we go. I was thinking he might feel funny being older then everyone else. His two younger siblings are going to do it so he said he wants to do it again with them. I guess technically he can since he isn’t over 12. I told him the goal was for the other two to sign up and if there is room in that show then he can do it since he’s older. I am not going to sit through two shows nor will the youngest child who will be just so close to four but will miss the age cut off so she will have to sit out and hopefully not throw a fit since she’s a big fan. I hope they will still do JTA next time when we return after Star Wars land opens!

I think as long as your son has siblings in the show, he won’t feel funny. My DD is an only child and said that she would have felt comfortable if she had younger siblings doing it with her. I guess she would have been able to justify to herself that she was doing to help them. It was one of those times I felt terrible that we couldn’t give her a sibling.

I also gave my DD opportunities to step out of the Jedi Training even right up until the time they were going on stage because she was pouting so much. She insisted she want to do it, but refused to battle and pouted the whole time. Ugh!

Have fun on your upcoming trip!

 

[mala55]

Our guys are turning 4 the week after our trip, and would likely love JTA, but we don't want them to not be able to follow directions as well as the older kids doing it and ruin their experience (even though I have been told they would likely be let in), so we will bypass and do it on our next trip. I have seen a broad range of ages participating for sure which is awesome, but I think most kids don't know how they will respond to being on stage and in that setting until they are actually there, regardless of age.

Out doubt the experience would be ruined for the older kids. Many very young ones were in the show I saw. They were so dang cute!!! They don’t seem to have fear at that age.

 

[uffda]

We just did this last week with my 10 1/2 year old daughter and 5 year old son. They are both Star Wars fanatics, so I thought they'd be all about it. My daughter is tall for her age, there was one other girl about the same age, but I'd say most kids were about 5-8, and our group was 25% girls and 75% boys. She liked it, but seemed a bit self conscious as well. She said "it was ok", but that's about it. YMMV.

 

[mala55]

It’s such a wide age range, it’s difficult to know what the group dynamic will be. I’m glad your daughter had her sibling to donut with. I’m sure they will look back on it as a fun memory.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Mine did it in 2016, they were 9 and 7. DS9 was one of the oldest in the group. Our most recent trip he was 11 and did not want to do it again.

 

[AngiTN]

That’s great that your DGD enjoyed and had the confidence not to care about being older and taller. Wish I could instill the same confidence in my DD.

I think the fact that she's been the tallest in her class since Kindy has been a huge factor. Everyone has always thought her older than she is.
It's so hard to see them struggle, trust me I know. DD is very shy, even as an adult. She can barely look strangers in the eye even to this day. DGD is very much the opposite of her mother.

 

[deuceswild10]

Our kids were 7 when they did it, and were right in the middle. I thought the younger kids, ages four and five seemed a little lost. I saw some other kids who look to be a 10, 11 or 12 years old. Everyone seemed to have a blast.

 

[mala55]

Our kids were 7 when they did it, and were right in the middle. I thought the younger kids, ages four and five seemed a little lost. I saw some other kids who look to be a 10, 11 or 12 years old. Everyone seemed to have a blast.

It is such a fun experience! I think if there had been just one other kid near her age, it would have been a blast for her. Unfortunately, it’s the luck of the draw and there is no way of knowing. I guess if we signed up later (we were one of the first of the day) I could have asked if one of the other time slots had an older child in it.

 

[deuceswild10]

I hear ya!